SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together, family church.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven, we bow before you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You are our God, you are our creator, you are our redeemer, you are our friend.
SPEAKER_00: We come to you in the name of Jesus, crucified on the cross for our sins and raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we've come in this room to meet with you.
SPEAKER_00: We've come to meet together.
SPEAKER_00: And now I pray that by your Holy Spirit you would teach us from your word.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would give us open hearts and open minds so we can receive everything you have to teach us today.
SPEAKER_00: And we do pledge to receive it and receive it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: And we receive it all in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And all God's people say, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome again to Family Church.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Jimmy Scrogans.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday at Family Church, one of our big priorities is we have a Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have our Bible study right now.
SPEAKER_00: So go ahead and get your Bibles out.
SPEAKER_00: Turn your Bibles on on your devices.
SPEAKER_00: Grab a Bible from the pew in front of you and open up to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we wrapped up our series on the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That was a great teaching series.
SPEAKER_00: I got a lot out of it studying to preach.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that you enjoyed it as well.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you told me that you did.
SPEAKER_00: And last Sunday, Pastor Christian preached in here.
SPEAKER_00: If you weren't here last Sunday, you should go on our YouTube channel and check it out.
SPEAKER_00: I was out of town with my wife, and I was in North Carolina, and I watched Christian preach for North Carolina, and he told this story about a time he had with his wife, and a time he had with his son, and he said, I wish those moments could last forever.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting there in North Carolina and my estrogen is attacking me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm just crying watching Christian tell these stories because I know Christian, I know his son, and I know his wife.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I just loved him so much.
SPEAKER_00: And it was such a powerful message.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll go back and check it out if you didn't hear it last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: But today is Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Palm Sunday, Christians all over the world start Holy Week today.
SPEAKER_00: We call Holy Week the week before Easter.
SPEAKER_00: So it's Palm Sunday at Family Church the way we celebrate it.
SPEAKER_00: Palm Sunday, Friday night is uh Good Friday service, and then Sunday we'll have a bunch of uh Easter Sunday morning services celebrating the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So our preaching rhythm is very clear and very consistent at Family Church.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get real creative with it, we don't get real tricky with it.
SPEAKER_00: Palm Sunday, we preach on the triumphal entry.
SPEAKER_00: Good Friday we preach on the cross of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Easter Sunday we preach on, the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: If you only come on Easter, you can be, golly, that God tells the same story every year.
SPEAKER_00: Come back next year, we'll do it again.
SPEAKER_00: But today, Matthew chapter 21 is about what we call Palm Sunday, the Triumphal Entry.
SPEAKER_00: And the big idea today, if you're writing things down, you might want to get out your program.
SPEAKER_00: It's got some fill-in-the-blanks, a place for you to write some things down, take some notes.
SPEAKER_00: It would be good for you to get in the habit of doing that when we have a Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: The big idea is that you're supposed to surrender to Jesus as the King.
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to surrender to Jesus as your king.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what is the one thing that separates someone who's what I'm gonna call Christian-ish from an all-in Christian?
SPEAKER_00: What separates someone who's Christian-ish from an all-in Christian?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is surrender.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're gonna read about in Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: But as you're still getting organized there to prepare for our Bible study, I want to talk to you about something that's been on my mind this week, and that is tipping.
SPEAKER_00: Tipping and rounding up.
SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about that, because I actually believe in tipping.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the hospitality industry, if you've ever been in the hospitality industry, I think tipping is a good idea.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to a restaurant, uh they provide good service for you, and you can afford it, you should tip as generously as you can.
SPEAKER_00: If you somehow communicate to them in the course of your conversation that you are a Christian or you go to family church, you better tip because you're gonna make us all you make Jesus look bad.
SPEAKER_00: Don't make Jesus look bad with your cheap tips, all right?
SPEAKER_00: But I don't like it when I go to a quick service place and I give them my order and they say, before we fill your order, I just want you to answer one question, and they spin that little thing around.
SPEAKER_00: They want me to give them a tip before they actually do anything.
SPEAKER_00: That is not a tip, that is a hostage situation.
SPEAKER_00: Because it makes me wonder if I don't tip the right amount, am I about to find a lugi in my latte?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't really, I don't really want that, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And the same with rounding up every store, every time.
SPEAKER_00: Would you like to round up?
SPEAKER_00: Would you like I went to Publix, would you like to round up to help feed people?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Publix, you have all the food.
SPEAKER_00: People like to get Jesus on board with their own agenda.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is, I like to do that too.
SPEAKER_00: I bet some of you do as well.
SPEAKER_00: We all kind of, if we're not thinking about it right, we can think of Jesus as a good luck charm that kind of supports or gives us a boost to the thing that we already want to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then if Jesus does a good job helping me with my thing, maybe I'll give him a tip or even roundup.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you get good service from the Lord, you should give him a good tip.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of tip or roundup do you think Jesus should get?
SPEAKER_00: When you study the Bible, you're going to figure out Jesus is not your barista.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not your server.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not the cashier at Target.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king.
SPEAKER_00: He deserves to be the king.
SPEAKER_00: The king doesn't get tips, and the king doesn't get roundups.
SPEAKER_00: The king gets surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we ought to be doing when it comes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When we get to Matthew chapter 21, this story takes place in a context.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some of that.
SPEAKER_00: The context is that Jesus in this story is 33 years old.
SPEAKER_00: For the last three years, he's been spending day and night with his disciples, teaching them, doing miracles in front of them, sharing miracles with them, showing them how to love people, saying hard things that other people are afraid to say.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of stuff that Jesus is doing for the last three years with these disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is saying these hard things, especially speaking truth to power, if you will, the religious elites are furious with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus comes to this story in Matthew chapter 21, three years of agitating, which Jesus has been doing, has created massive tension between Jesus and the religious elites.
SPEAKER_00: The religious elites hate him so much that they've already made plans to take him out, to have him killed.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus and his disciples come to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: That's the belly of the beast for the religious elites.
SPEAKER_00: They come to Jerusalem in Matthew chapter 21 to celebrate the Passover, the most important feast day in all of Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: And when they get there, they show up and Jesus makes them come to Jerusalem against security recommendations.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd in Jerusalem is huge, the place is packed, there's nowhere to stay, there's nowhere to sleep, there's nowhere to eat.
SPEAKER_00: So many people.
SPEAKER_00: The people are excited to be there for Passover, but the tension between Jesus and the religious elites is thick.
SPEAKER_00: People are talking about it.
SPEAKER_00: His whole life in ministry for the last three years, when Jesus does these famous miracles, people would then try to make Jesus famous.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus would say, You can't make me famous right now.
SPEAKER_00: It is not time.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do a big miracle, and people say, Well, you need to be famous.
SPEAKER_00: You can't make me famous right now.
SPEAKER_00: It's not time.
SPEAKER_00: But this time, in this story, we're going to read in Matthew chapter 21, Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus enters Jerusalem on this day, he does not pull back.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus rises up.
SPEAKER_00: And he pronounces and he announces and he declares himself to be the king.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read our text, Matthew 21, starting in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the word of God says.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her.
SPEAKER_00: Untie them and bring them to me.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, The Lord needs them, and he will send them at once.
SPEAKER_00: This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: Humble and mounted on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: On a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.
SPEAKER_00: They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them out on the road.
SPEAKER_00: And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, Who is this?
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And all God's people say, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We received God's word at family church.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a churchy person, this is a familiar story for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you grew up as a kid going to church, how many of you guys grew up as a kid going to some kind of a church?
SPEAKER_00: A lot of you guys did.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I did too.
SPEAKER_00: You probably had the experience, they probably found a guy in your church who had a beard, and then they put him on and they rented a donkey from somewhere, and then he rode around the children's ministry on the donkey, and they said, Oh, it's Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: They're probably doing that over there right now.
SPEAKER_00: We know that the Sunday before Easter is typically called by Christians around the world Palm Sunday because of what it says here in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: It says that when Jesus rides in, they cut branches off the trees and threw the branches on the road before him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this story is told in all four Gospels.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very important story.
SPEAKER_00: And the Gospel of John to give us an extra detail.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us what kind of trees they were cutting branches up.
SPEAKER_00: They are palm trees.
SPEAKER_00: So these are palm branches, hence the name Palm Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Christians also refer to this story as the Triumphal Entry.
SPEAKER_00: That's my preferred title for the story.
SPEAKER_00: We call it the Triumphal Entry because Jesus is entering the city of Jerusalem as a king, mounted on a donkey in accordance with the prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a very important story.
SPEAKER_00: I said at the beginning that being a Christian instead of just Christianish is going to require surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone needs to make a personal decision to surrender everything to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: But what can we learn from this text?
SPEAKER_00: If you're going to write some things down, here's the first thing I'd like you to see in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, Jesus is the king who is in control.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king who is in control.
SPEAKER_00: In this story, Jesus is not reacting, Jesus is orchestrating what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in control of the directions.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 1, what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It says, when they drew near to Jerusalem, when they drew near to Jerusalem, Jesus is directing his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying you should not go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: People there want to kill you.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Oh no, we're going to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is directing, he knows exactly where he's going, and he's going at exactly the right time.
SPEAKER_00: He's going there on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just directions.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in charge of the details in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 2 and verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells the disciples, here's where the donkey's going to be.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what you're going to do.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what is going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what you are going to say.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is calling the shots.
SPEAKER_00: He is in total control of this entire story.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a coincidence.
SPEAKER_00: That is control.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus had a very specific reason that he wanted to enter Jerusalem in this particular way, riding on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see in verse 4, it says it was spoken of by the prophet?
SPEAKER_00: What prophet is that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the prophet is the prophet Zechariah.
SPEAKER_00: The prophet Zacharias, who is quoted by Matthew as he tells, as he narrates the story.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in order for you to understand why he quotes Zechariah, I'm going to need you to go with me on a little Old Testament history rabbit trail.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're new to studying the Bible, you're going to, might, this might be a little much for you, but if you've been studying the Bible a while, this might actually encourage you and make some connections for you between the Old Testament and the story in Matthew chapter 21.
SPEAKER_00: So Zechariah was a preacher who preached or prophesied 500 years before the time of Christ, 500 years before the triumphal entry.
SPEAKER_00: Now, during Zechariah's time, 500 years before Christ, there was no true king in Jerusalem, and there had not been a true king for many years.
SPEAKER_00: And Zechariah prophesied under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Zachariah said, one day the true king will ride into Jerusalem, and when the true king rides into Jerusalem, he's going to ride in on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go over a little more Old Testament history.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this important?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so if you guys know a little bit about the Bible, if you don't, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: The very first king of Israel, this is like a thousand BC, the very first king of Israel was King Saul.
SPEAKER_00: The second king of Israel was King David.
SPEAKER_00: The third king of Israel was King Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: After Solomon dies, the civil war takes over Israel, the kingdom starts to fall apart.
SPEAKER_00: They don't serve God very faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happened is God jugged them using other nations.
SPEAKER_00: So in 586, the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: In 538, the Persians came in and began to rebuild Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: If you study the Bible, that's what Ezra is about.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah is about that.
SPEAKER_00: They rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: Alexander the Great rides in in 332 and he begins to reshape Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: That's when they all started speaking Greek.
SPEAKER_00: And then in 63 BC, the Romans took over and the Romans controlled Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So what you see is century after century, empire after empire, generation after generation, no true king in all of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why back in the 500s, when the Persians were rebuilding Jerusalem, Zachariah shows up and he says, and let me quote to you the whole thing from Zechariah chapter 9, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Zachariah says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
SPEAKER_00: Sing aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem, Behold, your king is coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: Righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: So what Matthew points out in Matthew chapter 21, verse 4, is that Jesus is the true king that Zachariah was preaching about 500 years before.
SPEAKER_00: And why did Jesus choose to ride in on a donkey?
SPEAKER_00: He could have walked in, he could have ridden in on a horse.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jesus is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He probably could have ridden in on an elephant if he wanted to.
SPEAKER_00: He could have ridden in on whatever he wanted, but why did he choose a donkey?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is intentionally, remember, he's in control.
SPEAKER_00: He is intentionally fulfilling the prophecies about him from Zechariah 500 years before.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like Jesus, like, huh, I need something to ride in.
SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna write in?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I bet I could ride in on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: And then someone says, Wow, it's cool that you wrote in on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, did you know that in Zechariah chapter 9, it actually says that the king's gonna write?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew exactly what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: He was choosing a donkey, he's riding it on a donkey.
SPEAKER_00: He wants everybody to know if you've been waiting for the true king, century after century, empire after empire, generation after generation, the true king is here, and it's me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wanted people to make that connection.
SPEAKER_00: And in this story, Jesus decides when he rides into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus decides how he rides into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus decides who's gonna be there when he rides into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus decides what he's gonna ride into Jerusalem because Jesus is the king and he's in total control.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: if you were there that day, it probably didn't look like Jesus was in total control.
SPEAKER_00: It probably looked like, man, these religious elites are gonna take him out.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans are in charge.
SPEAKER_00: He's got this little raggedy mop group throwing down palm branches around his donkey and all this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it doesn't look like he's in control.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples certainly didn't see him as the king yet.
SPEAKER_00: The religious elites were trying to keep him from being the king.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans didn't believe he ever could be the king.
SPEAKER_00: But when you read this story, it becomes very obvious.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus understands that he is the king.
SPEAKER_00: He's declaring himself to be the king, he's offering himself to everyone who will believe that he is the king.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just say to you, family church, you might make your first time here.
SPEAKER_00: You might be sitting way up in the balcony.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know, you know why some of you guys came?
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to come at 9:30.
SPEAKER_00: I know you, but it was raining.
SPEAKER_00: And you said, and then one of you said, Let's just watch it on YouTube.
SPEAKER_00: And then the good Christian in your family said, Oh no, we've got to go.
SPEAKER_00: And the good Christian dragged y'all all down here, and here you are.
SPEAKER_00: But even in a room like this, it may feel like things in this world are out of control.
SPEAKER_00: Have you been watching the news?
SPEAKER_00: You don't even know what to believe.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even know who's giving you the straight scoop.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it feels like things could be getting out of control.
SPEAKER_00: World events.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you say, I don't really care about world events because right now my health is not under my control.
SPEAKER_00: It's bothering me.
SPEAKER_00: My marriage is not under my control.
SPEAKER_00: My children are really not under my control.
SPEAKER_00: My finances feel like they're getting out of control.
SPEAKER_00: My business does not feel like I'm able to control it.
SPEAKER_00: My depression is controlling me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not controlling it.
SPEAKER_00: My temptation and my failures and my struggles feel like they're getting out of control.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've got news for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like you are not in control, you are actually a hundred percent right.
SPEAKER_00: Control in this life is an illusion.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like you're in control of all of these things, just live a little bit longer and just wait.
SPEAKER_00: Because it'll become very obvious to you that you don't have enough money to control it, you don't have enough authority to control it, you don't have enough wisdom to control it, you don't have enough physical strength to control it.
SPEAKER_00: Things are going to happen to you, and you're gonna realize on this one, man, I'm just not in control.
SPEAKER_00: King Jesus is in control.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you need a king who is in control, and that's why you don't tip him, that's why you don't round up for him, you surrender to him because he's the king who is in control, and that's what you need, and that's what I need.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, on your notes, what do we see in this story?
SPEAKER_00: Number two, you see that Jesus is the king that you need.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king that you need.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people were paying attention to Jesus on Palm Sunday, and a lot of them actually wanted a king, but the thing is, the king that they wanted was not the king that they needed.
SPEAKER_00: The king they thought they wanted was not the king that they needed.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you are in that boat right now.
SPEAKER_00: You want Jesus to do something for you, but what you want Jesus to do for you is not what you need Jesus to do for you.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus the king is going to decide what you need.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what you need before you do.
SPEAKER_00: Those Jewish elites that were present, they they thought they knew what they needed in a king.
SPEAKER_00: They thought they needed a king to restore temple worship to the way it used to be.
SPEAKER_00: They thought they needed a king to reestablish the Davidic monarchy in the line of David.
SPEAKER_00: They thought they needed a king to throw out the Romans.
SPEAKER_00: They thought they knew what they needed in a king, but Jesus didn't come to fix their circumstances immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to fix their hearts immediately.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest problem in life is not the things that are attacking us out there.
SPEAKER_00: The biggest problem we have is what is attacking us in here, and that's our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come to just knock Caesar off of the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to knock self off of the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come just to change the government, Jesus came to change you.
SPEAKER_00: He's that kind of king.
SPEAKER_00: Can he fix your circumstances?
SPEAKER_00: Sure he can.
SPEAKER_00: And he will.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you already has in certain ways.
SPEAKER_00: Can he?
SPEAKER_00: Change the government?
SPEAKER_00: Sure he can.
SPEAKER_00: And he will.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, what you can be sure he wants to do is to change you.
SPEAKER_00: Change your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Change me.
SPEAKER_00: People have always tried to enlist Jesus for their own agenda.
SPEAKER_00: Religious elites do it today.
SPEAKER_00: Politicians of all persuasions do it today.
SPEAKER_00: Crowds of people do it for different reasons.
SPEAKER_00: It was true back then, it's true today.
SPEAKER_00: The right claims Jesus, he's on our side.
SPEAKER_00: The left claims Jesus, he's on our side.
SPEAKER_00: We know that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Don't email me.
SPEAKER_00: It's fine, it's fine, it's fine.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little joke.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful with any political party or any politician or any group that tries to claim Jesus is on their side.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus established one organization on this earth to carry out his agenda, and that is the neighborhood church.
SPEAKER_00: With every other organization, you better step back and be careful and be wary.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is the organization that the king has established.
SPEAKER_00: The bottom line is Jesus is not going to surrender to your agenda and get on board with you.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to surrender your agenda to him and get on board with him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you do with the king.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are thinking, Pastor Jimmy, you know, come over here and then you bring up this political stuff and you get in everybody's business and you just, why do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: How do you even know, Pastor Jimmy, what side Jesus is really on?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But I can tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: When I read the Bible, I figure out Jesus didn't actually come to take sides.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus actually came to take over.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's the king.
SPEAKER_00: He's not getting on board with your agenda or my agenda.
SPEAKER_00: He's getting on board with his own agenda, and we surrender to him when we get on board with him.
SPEAKER_00: He is the king.
SPEAKER_00: When you read the Bible, you'll see that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king you've been waiting for, even if you didn't even know it.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you came in the room today, you came because a religious person invited you, a friend invited you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not used to this kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I can just tell you this: Jesus is the king you have been longing for.
SPEAKER_00: He is the truth you have been searching for, he's the love you've been yearning for.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the king, and he is presenting himself to you.
SPEAKER_00: He is inviting you to come, surrender to him and take him as your king.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, no one would ever do that.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people in this room have already done that.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people in other rooms all over the world have already done that.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never done it, you should stop listening to everything that I'm saying right now.
SPEAKER_00: And you should just, in your own heart, repent of your sins and turn to Christ, crucified for your sins and raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Receive Jesus by faith for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you should do.
SPEAKER_00: Take Jesus as your king, surrender to him today.
SPEAKER_00: So, well, no one would ever do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you, He'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: Young people will do it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, at Family Church, we have an awesome student ministry program.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of middle school students and high school students are involved in this thing.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, a couple of weeks ago we had this big effort that we called advance, and our students from our neighborhood church, you know, have 20 family church locations.
SPEAKER_00: Our students knocked on over 10,000 doors in Palm Beach County.
SPEAKER_00: And all they did, they went around, yeah, you give it up for our students.
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And when they knocked on these doors, they they they knocked on doors and they just said, Hey, listen, we're from family church.
SPEAKER_00: We want to connect with people in our neighborhood, we want to invite you to Easter services.
SPEAKER_00: They give them a little brochure and then they say, Could we pray?
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything going on in your family we could pray for you about?
SPEAKER_00: And then if they have an opportunity, they take our little tool that we have and they share the three circles.
SPEAKER_00: They share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And hundreds of our teenagers are doing this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you might think, well, you must have like the weirdest teenagers in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are weird, but a lot of them aren't.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is, it's amazing what teenagers will do when they believe God's using them.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing what teenagers will do.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a girl, she's a senior in high school, and she was out, her name's Addy, and she was out there, and her responsibility was she was supposed to lead a group of middle school kids.
SPEAKER_00: She was in charge, she leads the group of middle school kids, and she goes knocking on these doors.
SPEAKER_00: And they've been doing this for several days, and they had very little good response.
SPEAKER_00: And all these other people are telling all these great stories, and they would come back every afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Our group stinks, nothing's happening.
SPEAKER_00: What's up?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing, God?
SPEAKER_00: Why do we even do this?
SPEAKER_00: The last day, like the last half hour, they were going to be out there.
SPEAKER_00: They knock on the door, and this lady named Isha answers the door.
SPEAKER_00: And Isha comes to the door, and Addy told me, she said, Isha says, It's weird that you're here.
SPEAKER_00: I've been having questions about Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: And they begin to talk to her, they pray with her.
SPEAKER_00: They use our little gospel tool, the three circles.
SPEAKER_00: They talk to them about Jesus crucified for her sins and raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of this conversation, these teenagers are talking with Isha.
SPEAKER_00: Isha prays with these teenagers to receive Jesus by faith for herself.
SPEAKER_00: And Isha surrenders to Jesus as her king right there on her doorstep with family church teenagers.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what I really like about that is these teenagers are starting to believe if they will line up with the agenda of King Jesus, King Jesus will use them.
SPEAKER_00: King Jesus will care for them, King Jesus will empower them.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that because if a young person begins to believe that when they're 16, 17, 18 years old, they can live a whole life for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing for teenagers to do it, but have you done it?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not a teenager, I'm like, I'm not as old as you, Pastor Jimmy, but I'm like 35.
SPEAKER_00: I'm old.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't, I don't, uh, I don't need to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you do.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody needs to surrender to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: And so you say, well, I already did that before.
SPEAKER_00: I'm already a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know it's possible.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a Christian, you have to surrender to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible that you are already a Christian, but there are areas of your life that are not surrendered to Jesus, and you know what I'm talking about right now.
SPEAKER_00: And what you should do as a Christian is say, wow, I'm reading this text, I'm realizing Jesus really is the king.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to put my yes on the table before the Lord because everything that I have is supposed to be surrendered to him.
SPEAKER_00: My money's supposed to be surrendered to him, my marriage is supposed to be surrendered to him, my parenting is supposed to be surrendered to him, my business is supposed to be surrendered to him, my reputation is supposed to be surrendered to him.
SPEAKER_00: Everything I have should be surrendered to him as my king.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're a holding back part of that, you should lay it down right now.
SPEAKER_00: Put your yes on the table and say, I'm gonna put everything on the table for you, King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Surrender everything.
SPEAKER_00: I love it when people get saved like Isha.
SPEAKER_00: When you receive Jesus, you receive him as your Savior, but you receive him as your Lord, and you don't just get forgiveness, you get a king.
SPEAKER_00: And what does the king do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he does deal with your guilt and your guilty feelings because he forgives you.
SPEAKER_00: And he does deal with your emptiness and your empty feelings because he gives you a sense of purpose, and he does deal with your loneliness you've been battling because he gives you a family, and he does deal with your sense of injustice in the world because he gives you a final judgment, and he does deal with your uncertainty about the future because he gives you a home in heaven one day.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't the king you might have been looking for, but Jesus is the king you need.
SPEAKER_00: It was true then, it's true today.
SPEAKER_00: Have you realized that Jesus deserves to be your king?
SPEAKER_00: What are you really waiting for?
SPEAKER_00: Because you've already tried your way, you've already tried your plan, you've already tried other things.
SPEAKER_00: How did it go?
SPEAKER_00: And you need Jesus to be your king.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to repent?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to surrender to the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the deal, guys.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who are surrendered to the Lord, and there are people who are not surrendered to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There's really nothing in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a line, and you have to decide which side of the line are you on?
SPEAKER_00: Are you surrendered to the Lord or are you not surrendered to the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I think I am kind of in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: Christian-ish is bad.
SPEAKER_00: Christian-ish is undesirable.
SPEAKER_00: Christian-ish is lukewarm.
SPEAKER_00: Christian-ish is not what God wants for you.
SPEAKER_00: I think you would be better off just choosing surrender to Jesus as king.
SPEAKER_00: Don't surrender to Jesus as king.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to straddle the fence.
SPEAKER_00: Get off of the fence, put your yes on the table, surrender to him as king, or make your decision now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to surrender to Jesus as king and stop fooling around with it.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to number three.
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus your king?
SPEAKER_00: This story begs the question.
SPEAKER_00: This week, while Kristen and I were in North Carolina, and I'm so grateful our church lets us have time together like that.
SPEAKER_00: Christian and I were in North Carolina, and we had the best time.
SPEAKER_00: But while I was there, my friend Don Childers, I got a call from his son.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey, my dad's probably gonna go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't be there, and I wanted to be there, but I was I couldn't get back, and I called him on the phone and I talked to Don.
SPEAKER_00: I talked to him about heaven and I prayed with him.
SPEAKER_00: And then on Friday, Don died, and Don went to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He was 94 years old.
SPEAKER_00: He's been going to this church for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: He used to sit right right over here.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the last time I was here two weeks ago, he was here.
SPEAKER_00: He was sitting right there.
SPEAKER_00: He was a faithful believer and a faithful friend.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of the song we sang earlier.
SPEAKER_00: No guilt in life, no fear in death.
SPEAKER_00: It is the power of Christ in me.
SPEAKER_00: From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Don's son, Tim, and his wife Cheryl and their kids, Carter and Cassidy, they go here.
SPEAKER_00: They've been going here for years.
SPEAKER_00: And Tim called me after his dad died, and he said, At the end, we were all gathered around him at his house, and we knew it was the end.
SPEAKER_00: And he was gasping for breath.
SPEAKER_00: And he told us all that he loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And then as he would have breath, he would say, I love you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I love you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how I went to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: No guilt in life.
SPEAKER_00: No fear in death.
SPEAKER_00: From life's first cry to final breath.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus commands my destiny.
SPEAKER_00: 94-year-old guy fully surrendered to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: What about you?
SPEAKER_00: These little teenagers can surrender to Jesus as King?
SPEAKER_00: An old man like Don can surrender to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: What about you?
SPEAKER_00: What's holding you back?
SPEAKER_00: Surrender to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The story we're reading about Palm Sunday is an old story, 2,000 years old.
SPEAKER_00: But the question I'm asking you is very current right now.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had declared himself to be king.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been crucified and he's been raised from the dead, proving that he is the king.
SPEAKER_00: And I know some of you are like, okay, okay, okay, Pastor Jimmy, my gosh, we get it.
SPEAKER_00: We're all Jesus supporters in here.
SPEAKER_00: We showed up today, didn't we?
SPEAKER_00: It's raining.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to cheer for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's another thing to commit to him.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing to be in favor of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's another thing to surrender to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Plenty of people will sing Hosanna on Sunday, but then they'll say ho hum on Monday.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: Have you received Jesus for yourself by faith?
SPEAKER_00: Have you turned from your sins and received Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are you fully look?
SPEAKER_00: Forget about what you did a once a long time ago and when you were young and when you were at a revival service and some Easter time.
SPEAKER_00: Forget about all that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's all important.
SPEAKER_00: But what about right now?
SPEAKER_00: Would you say that you, right now, this morning, as you sit here in this room, are you, as much as you can tell, fully surrendered to Jesus as King?
SPEAKER_00: As much as you can tell.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying, look, you don't have to be perfect to surrender to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have all your problems solved to surrender to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have all your questions answered to surrender to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: But can you say right now, as much as I can, I'm surrendered to Jesus as King.
SPEAKER_00: Because somebody is ruling on the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's either yourself ruling on the throne of your own heart, with Jesus on the outside looking in, and that's why all of the affections and all of the priorities of your life are out of whack.
SPEAKER_00: Or you can take self off the throne of your heart, surrender to Jesus as King, and all of a sudden all of your affections and your priorities are going to begin to fall into place.
SPEAKER_00: So who's on the throne of your heart right now?
SPEAKER_00: Who is ruling and reigning in heart?
SPEAKER_00: Have you surrendered?
SPEAKER_00: Is your yes on the table for Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You read the story, he wrote in on a donkey, he was humble, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was humble his whole life.
SPEAKER_00: He had a very humble path to the throne of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: He was born in poverty.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up in obscurity.
SPEAKER_00: He ministered under constant suspicion.
SPEAKER_00: He rode in on a donkey on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: He washed his disciples' feet on Thursday.
SPEAKER_00: Later Thursday night, he was betrayed by his friend.
SPEAKER_00: On Friday morning, he was put on trial and beaten by his foes.
SPEAKER_00: On Friday afternoon, he was crucified for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: On Friday evening, he was buried in the grave.
SPEAKER_00: He started out humble and lowly in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: And he ended even lower in the grave in that garden tomb outside of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know better, it all looks like one big crisis.
SPEAKER_00: But it's actually not a crisis, it's a coronation.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's Jesus announcing He's the King.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus didn't come to pick sides, Jesus came to take over.
SPEAKER_00: And every Sunday at Family Church, we take the Lord's Supper, which we're going to do right now.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord's Supper is one way we declare to ourselves, to the people sitting around us in our church family, to the angels who are watching us, Jesus is the King.
SPEAKER_00: I have surrendered to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As you get ready to take the Lord's Supper, let me remind you that the Lord's Supper is for Christians.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning, you're not a Christian, you never received Jesus for yourself by faith, you should not take the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_00: Just listen, sing.
SPEAKER_00: You can pray if you want to, but wait until after you become a believer for yourself, and then you can take the Lord's Supper with integrity.
SPEAKER_00: Family Church, we teach and we believe it's best for you to take the Lord's Supper after you've been baptized by immersion and after you become a part of a neighborhood church.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you here say, Hey, I'm already a believer, and I've been baptized, but this just isn't my church, at least not yet.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I get all of that.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a believer in Jesus, you've been baptized, and you would take the Lord's Supper at your church, take it with us today as part of the extended family of Jesus that goes around the world.
SPEAKER_00: But this morning, as we take the bread, which represents the body of Christ, and as we drink the cup, which represents the blood of Christ, I hope that you will commit or recommit to Christ as your king.
SPEAKER_00: Put your yes on the table.
SPEAKER_00: Surrender to Him, everything to Him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God wants from all of us.
SPEAKER_00: And we should do it.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to invite you to bow your heads and close your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Draw close to the Lord, confess your sins, commit to surrender everything in your life to Jesus, and in just a minute, we'll all eat and drink together.